Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Contemporary (2000–) ·2006
Crowdfund
crowd fund
- Meaning
- To finance a project through small contributions from many people online.
- Source words
- crowd + fund
- Coined by
- Michael Sullivan
- Year
- 2006
Background
Sullivan proposed the term in a August 2006 blog post about his project *fundavlog*. Kickstarter (2009) and Indiegogo (2008) made the activity mainstream; the word tracked their rise almost exactly.
Contemporary (2000–)
Faster coinage, faster canonisation. Brexit and podcast both reached the OED within a decade of first use — historically rapid. Social media has made visibility, not invention, the rate-limiting step.
Two words, one coinage.
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